2012: The Conclusion, and Beyond

As 2012 comes to a conclusion and we start to prepare to move into 2013, it is a time to not only reflect on the past 348 days of mayhem and how far we’ve come, but also to plot out the future and what it may bring. I can’t say that I have much of anything conclusive for 2013 as a whole in the works yet, but it’s certainly getting off to a good start with these two show announcements.

First up: For Your Eyes Only: A Spy Affair

As has been the tradition for more years then I’ve been of legal age, Madison’s Club Inferno will play host once again to a wild and crazy themed NYE event that is entirely too cool for bar time (Okay, so every party on NYE in Madison has the option to be too cool for bar time, but it still sounds impressive). This year, we bring you a spy party! Bond, Archer, Mission:Impossible, Spy V Spy: if it involves spies or secret agents, then it’s fair game! Musical entertainment for the evening will be two verses sets: Dyreckt vs. Jean le Duke,  Whiterabbit vs. psych0tron, and a special opening set by DJ Cosmic.

 

After everyone’s had a bit to recover from New Years, next up we have the Midwest’s only two-day indoor music festival: Winter Warmer 2013: Force of Nature

Celebrating it’s 3rd year of tangible proof that the Midwest’s EDM scene knows how to throw a helluva party, Winter Warmer is back and taking over the entire Olympia Resort, a short drive from Milwaukee, to bring you 8 stages full of national, regional, and local musical talent for two full nights of beats, visuals, vendors, and one kick-ass party. I’ll be throwing down a prime time DJ set at the psytrance stage on night one of this epic event on January 11th-12th.

 

I’ve got a few things in the early planning stages going forward in 2013, but those will have to wait for a later time when they’re a bit more developed. I, like many other DJs and musicians, also have my “top picks of 2012″ list in the works, but generally make a point of waiting until shortly after New Years to share it since there’s inevitably a few solid releases at the end of every year that are worth mentioning. Rather then make them wait a full year before getting a nod, you folks will have to wait on that a couple more weeks.

 

Lastly, I’d like to take a brief moment to share my condolences, shock, sadness, and utter disgust with certain aspects of humanity that flew into everyone’s face this morning when the news broke about the massacre of 27 people, including 20 young children, at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. I would also like to express those same sentiments for the 22 children and one adult in the Chinese village of Chengping who were wounded by a disturbed knife-wielding individual outside of their primary school this same morning. Tragedies like this happen quite a bit more often then a lot of folks realize when it’s not in their back yard, and I think the saddest and scariest part of the whole thing is that people don’t realize that simple truth. I’m not going to jump on either side of the inevitable gun control debates that have already begun, but simply ask that you treasure what you have and don’t take the little things for granted. I’d also ask for people to be decent human beings and give these victims and their family the space they need to mourn, cope, and try to get on with their lives but the vultures that are American mainstream media and a bunch of blatant opportunistic politicians have already shown that isn’t going to happen. You win some, and you lose some: today, we as a species lost.